On 26 August 1071 the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes1 met the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan near Manzikert in eastern Anatolia. Betrayed by a rival general whose troops abandoned the field, the emperor was defeated and taken prisoner, the first Byzantine emperor captured in battle in centuries. Alp Arslan soon released him, but the civil war that followed shattered Byzantine defences and opened Anatolia, the empire's heartland, to Turkish settlement.
It was not the bloodiest battle of the age, and the sultan even let his captive go. Yet Manzikert is remembered as one of the most fateful defeats in history, because of what came after: a rich empire that had held the east for centuries lost the ground it stood on, and never fully got it back.
An empire under pressure
In the 11th century the Byzantine Empire still held Anatolia, the great recruiting ground and breadbasket that had sustained it for centuries. But a new power, the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Alp Arslan, was raiding ever deeper into its eastern frontier. In 1071 Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes led a large but mixed army east to drive the Turks back for good.
A mixed and mistrustful army
Romanos's army was huge on paper but uneven in loyalty, made up of Byzantine regulars, foreign mercenaries and contingents whose commanders resented him. Near Manzikert he divided his forces2, and Alp Arslan offered a truce, but Romanos rejected it and sought a decisive battle. The fast Seljuk horse archers harassed the Byzantine line all day2, refusing a straight fight and drawing the heavy army out of shape.
Betrayal on the field
As evening came and Romanos ordered a withdrawal, the manoeuvre fell into confusion. The rear guard, led by his rival Andronikos Doukas, deserted the field and spread word that the emperor was lost2. The Seljuks fell on the broken line, and Romanos, fighting on with the men who stayed, was wounded and taken prisoner2. Alp Arslan treated his captive with courtesy3 and, after terms were agreed, set him free.
The long unravelling
The disaster was less the battle than what followed. Romanos returned to a Byzantine court in revolt against him; he was overthrown, blinded and died of his wounds3. In the civil wars that consumed the next decade, the empire's eastern defences collapsed, and Turkish groups moved into Anatolia to stay4. Within a generation the heartland of Byzantium was largely lost, a blow it never truly recovered from, and one of the roads that led toward the Crusades.
